Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt

   1 git-pack-objects(1)
   2 ===================
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-pack-objects - Create a packed archive of objects
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git-pack-objects' [-q] [--no-reuse-delta] [--delta-base-offset] [--non-empty]
  13         [--local] [--incremental] [--window=N] [--depth=N] [--all-progress]
  14         [--revs [--unpacked | --all]*] [--stdout | base-name] < object-list
  15
  16
  17 DESCRIPTION
  18 -----------
  19 Reads list of objects from the standard input, and writes a packed
  20 archive with specified base-name, or to the standard output.
  21
  22 A packed archive is an efficient way to transfer set of objects
  23 between two repositories, and also is an archival format which
  24 is efficient to access.  The packed archive format (.pack) is
  25 designed to be unpackable without having anything else, but for
  26 random access, accompanied with the pack index file (.idx).
  27
  28 'git-unpack-objects' command can read the packed archive and
  29 expand the objects contained in the pack into "one-file
  30 one-object" format; this is typically done by the smart-pull
  31 commands when a pack is created on-the-fly for efficient network
  32 transport by their peers.
  33
  34 Placing both in the pack/ subdirectory of $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY (or
  35 any of the directories on $GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES)
  36 enables git to read from such an archive.
  37
  38 In a packed archive, an object is either stored as a compressed
  39 whole, or as a difference from some other object.  The latter is
  40 often called a delta.
  41
  42
  43 OPTIONS
  44 -------
  45 base-name::
  46         Write into a pair of files (.pack and .idx), using
  47         <base-name> to determine the name of the created file.
  48         When this option is used, the two files are written in
  49         <base-name>-<SHA1>.{pack,idx} files.  <SHA1> is a hash
  50         of the sorted object names to make the resulting filename
  51         based on the pack content, and written to the standard
  52         output of the command.
  53
  54 --stdout::
  55         Write the pack contents (what would have been written to
  56         .pack file) out to the standard output.
  57
  58 --revs::
  59         Read the revision arguments from the standard input, instead of
  60         individual object names.  The revision arguments are processed
  61         the same way as gitlink:git-rev-list[1] with `--objects` flag
  62         uses its `commit` arguments to build the list of objects it
  63         outputs.  The objects on the resulting list are packed.
  64
  65 --unpacked::
  66         This implies `--revs`.  When processing the list of
  67         revision arguments read from the standard input, limit
  68         the objects packed to those that are not already packed.
  69
  70 --all::
  71         This implies `--revs`.  In addition to the list of
  72         revision arguments read from the standard input, pretend
  73         as if all refs under `$GIT_DIR/refs` are specified to be
  74         included.
  75
  76 --window=[N], --depth=[N]::
  77         These two options affect how the objects contained in
  78         the pack are stored using delta compression.  The
  79         objects are first internally sorted by type, size and
  80         optionally names and compared against the other objects
  81         within --window to see if using delta compression saves
  82         space.  --depth limits the maximum delta depth; making
  83         it too deep affects the performance on the unpacker
  84         side, because delta data needs to be applied that many
  85         times to get to the necessary object.
  86         The default value for both --window and --depth is 10.
  87
  88 --incremental::
  89         This flag causes an object already in a pack ignored
  90         even if it appears in the standard input.
  91
  92 --local::
  93         This flag is similar to `--incremental`; instead of
  94         ignoring all packed objects, it only ignores objects
  95         that are packed and not in the local object store
  96         (i.e. borrowed from an alternate).
  97
  98 --non-empty::
  99         Only create a packed archive if it would contain at
 100         least one object.
 101
 102 --progress::
 103         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
 104         by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
 105         is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
 106         the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
 107
 108 --all-progress::
 109         When --stdout is specified then progress report is
 110         displayed during the object count and deltification phases
 111         but inhibited during the write-out phase. The reason is
 112         that in some cases the output stream is directly linked
 113         to another command which may wish to display progress
 114         status of its own as it processes incoming pack data.
 115         This flag is like --progress except that it forces progress
 116         report for the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is
 117         used.
 118
 119 -q::
 120         This flag makes the command not to report its progress
 121         on the standard error stream.
 122
 123 --no-reuse-delta::
 124         When creating a packed archive in a repository that
 125         has existing packs, the command reuses existing deltas.
 126         This sometimes results in a slightly suboptimal pack.
 127         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing deltas
 128         but compute them from scratch.
 129
 130 --delta-base-offset::
 131         A packed archive can express base object of a delta as
 132         either 20-byte object name or as an offset in the
 133         stream, but older version of git does not understand the
 134         latter.  By default, git-pack-objects only uses the
 135         former format for better compatibility.  This option
 136         allows the command to use the latter format for
 137         compactness.  Depending on the average delta chain
 138         length, this option typically shrinks the resulting
 139         packfile by 3-5 per-cent.
 140
 141 --index-version=<version>[,<offset>]::
 142         This is intended to be used by the test suite only. It allows
 143         to force the version for the generated pack index, and to force
 144         64-bit index entries on objects located above the given offset.
 145
 146
 147 Author
 148 ------
 149 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 150
 151 Documentation
 152 -------------
 153 Documentation by Junio C Hamano
 154
 155 See Also
 156 --------
 157 gitlink:git-rev-list[1]
 158 gitlink:git-repack[1]
 159 gitlink:git-prune-packed[1]
 160
 161 GIT
 162 ---
 163 Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 164